55 year old white male with chronic non-infectious prostatitis last 30 years. Psa has been in the 4-5 range last 20 years. History of two episodes of prostatitis leading to septicemia (e coli) which responded to hospitalization and IV antibiotics. Last episode 4 months ago. Understand that this can elevate psa. Now have psa 19 and free psa 4.6%. Am back on antibiotics and waiting for retest of psa.

I think we have a pretty savvy group for prostate cancer, but we are not so knowledgeable about prostatitis. Your question was:

Quote:

...How long can a severe infection cause elevated psa???

I don't know the answer, but, if you haven't been there already, why not try searching www.pubmed.gov? That's an example of our taxpayer dollars at work, hard at work in my opinion, and we ought to get our money's worth. I just searched with " prostatitis AND elevated PSA " and got 98 hits. If you click on the blue hypertext titles of papers, you will see descriptions of the research and the findings. It will probably take some work, but I suspect your answer is in one or more of those papers.

Prostatitis can settle in and become a chronic infection that is, in some cases, incurable. It will elevate your PSA as long as you have active infection. Free PSA less than 10% is troubling. I can see why you'd hesitate to have a biopsy, given your history of e coli infection. All you can do is take it one step at a time. Good luck!
- Allen